Williams sisters curse the draw with quarter-final meeting

New York, Sep 3 (DPA) The Williams sisters can’t believe their poor luck of the draw as Venus faces Serena in the quarter-finals of the US Open.”It sucked that it can’t be the final, at least the semis,” complained fourth seed Serena, who lost the Wimbledon title match less than two months ago to her elder sibling.

“It’s so soon, it’s just disappointing to be so soon.”

It’s been a long time between title at Flushing Meadows for the sister act which looked like dominating the game half a decade ago.

The pair played finals in 2001 and 2002, with Venus winning the first and her younger sister the second.

But since those glory days, the siblings’ level at the home event has dropped, with Venus reaching a semi-final best in 2007 and Serena stalling twice in the quarter-finals.

Neither sister is short on confidence as they enter the contest on a dead-level 8-8 since first playing on the WTA in 1998.

“I feel like I can win the tournament if I play my best tennis,” said eight-time Grand Slam champion Serena, 26. “I don’t think I’ve played my best yet. I feel like I can play better and hit better, I’m going to try to do that.”

The younger sister is hoping to perform better than in her straight-set Wimbledon loss. “I can take a lot from it, I don’t think I played well at all in that final. I was extremely disappointed with my performance. I hate to lose. It doesn’t matter who I’m playing.”

Venus, five times a Wimbledon champion, said that she knew that the good times from the turn of the century could not go on forever.

“It would have been great, obviously we were playing very well then. But things happen, life happened. You can’t always predict it.”

Like her sister, Venus is all about the victory and about playing down the family rivalry. “I would love to win this championship - It will be a huge milestone to win this championship.

“I think if I had a sister and she wasn’t very good, then it would be just not really a big deal because I would beat her. But she’s very good, so I have to figure out, okay, how can I win this match?”